By Michael Grossberg
Two-time Prometheus Awards-winning author Travis Corcoran, a passionate believer in encouraging younger generations to read, is writing several Young Adult novels that promise to be published in 2026.
Two will be part of Corcoran’s Aristillus series, set in our solar system’s future and launched with his two Prometheus-winning novels The Powers of the Earth and Causes of Separation.
Tentatively set for publication this fall by Morlock Publishing, Corcoran’s two Aristillus YA novels are The Aristillus Engineering Club and the Journey to the Center of Mars and The Aristillus Engineering Club Around Mars in 80 Sols.
Corcoran describes the two Aristillus YA novels as “light-hearted” and inspired by the Heinlein Juveniles, Bertrand R. Brinley’s ‘Mad Scientists Club’ novels, and Jules Verne’s ‘Extraordinary Voyages’ novels (e.g. Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in 80 Days, etc.).
Among the Heinlein Young Adult or “juvenile” novels that have inspired Corcoran are Citizen of the Galaxy, inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame in 2022, and Red Planet, inducted in 1996.
Set 15 years after the events of Corcoran’s Best Novel winner Causes of Separation, his two upcoming Aristillus YA novels “involve a gang of ‘free range’ teenagers (the eponymous ‘Aristillus Engineering Club’) who use computer programming, mechanical engineering, and scrounging in the military surplus stores of Aristillus to solve mysteries, explore Mars, and defeat their arch-rivals The Martian Hacker’s Club in various competitions,” he said.
THE AMERICAN TREASURE HUNTER SERIES
Meanwhile, Corcoran highly praises Ark Press’ new The American Treasure Hunter series, which highlights the positive adventures of three resourceful and resilient teenagers with strong ethical convictions.
Ark Press describes the Young Adult-oriented American Treasure Hunters series as “packed with adventure, mystery, and action as modern-day high school seniors Ben, Porter, and Latch search for lost treasure from America’s hidden past.”
The all-new series will tell a series of stand-alone stories in which “the high-school-age male heroes are smart, tough, and resourceful—and hunting treasure from American history’s secret past is the greatest game of all.”
Corcoran praises the Treasure Hunters series for its positive portrait of young people as capable, rational and independent-minded individualists.
“These three ‘free range’ teenagers have access to tools, know-how and a belief in their own rationalism and competence,” Corcoran said.
The first entry in the series will be The Hunt for Confederate Gold, set for publication April 14, 2026.
Here’s how Ark Press describes The Hunt for Confederate Gold:
“Ben Prescott, Porter Rockwell, and Latch McRae couldn’t be more different. Ben is a home-schooled brainiac. Porter is the starting quarterback for the Ridgeport Raiders, and Latch is a grease-smudged prodigy who never saw an engine he couldn’t take apart and set to purring. Yet the three have been friends forever, drawn together by a shared passion: treasure hunting for the forgotten loot of American history.
During a raucous Fourth of July fireworks battle, the trio stumbles onto a lost Confederate blockade-runner. Locked inside: a rusted safe, a sealed pouch, and the first breadcrumb to a vanished fortune in Confederate government gold, missing since the final days of the War Between the States.
They’re not alone. A bitter ex-employee of Ben’s father and a well-funded outsider are willing to lie, steal, and threaten to take the treasury for themselves, and wipe out the story of its origin.
Now the hunters must face danger and work their way through knotty clues and ciphers as they seek a long-lost map drawn in invisible ink on the back of a letter from General Robert E. Lee himself! It’s a map that may point to one of America’s richest lost treasures.”
The Boston Tea Party Conspiracy, Book 2 of the series, will be published June 16, 2026.
The Pirate and the Alamo, Book 3 of the series, will be published July 28, 2026.
The Missing U-Boat Enigma, Book 4 of the series, is scheduled for publication on Sept. 8, 2026.
The Secret of the Silver Cavern, Book 5 of the series, is scheduled for publication on Oct. 13, 2026.
Dare, billed as the series’ creator, is described in his Ark Press bio as an adventurer and world traveler who has climbed in Nepal, surfed in Australia, and sailed the Roaring Forties solo from Fremantle to Patagonia.
In the YA-novels tradition of Franklin W. Dixon of the old Hardy Boys series and Victor Appleton of the old Tom Swift series, Dare is being promoted as a 30-something aspirational version of “The World’s Most Interesting Man,” according to an Ark Press guide for parents and teachers.
Corcoran, for his part, said he was essential in helping Dare with the creation of Book 4, The Missing U-Boat Enigma.
The ghostwritten novels each have a dedication to a real-world author. For instance, Book 4 has a dedication thanking Corcoran “for his help.”
Fans of Corcoran should find a lot that’s familiar in this YA novel, he said, such as deep dives into cryptography, history, intellectual problem solving, and the pragmatic can-do attitude of the protagonists.
“These books aren’t politically libertarian, but they are absolutely culturally libertarian… and might be perfect candidates for the Special Prometheus Award for Young Adult fiction,” Corcoran said.
For further reading
See the related recent Prometheus Blog article highlighting Red State Mars, Corcoran’s first major SF novel in several years.
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